1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing device that performs printing according to print image data transmitted from an upper level device and a method of controlling a printing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a printing system has been known which includes a printing device and an upper level device delivering print data to the printing device as well as instructing the printing device to perform printing. In this printing system, for example, the upper level device generates a raster image type of print image data by using a raster image processer (RIP), on the basis of print data written in PDL (Page Description Language) that is transmitted from a host device, and transmits the generated print image data to a printing control unit of the printing device (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519).
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519 describes the configuration that includes a front end process unit having an RIP function, an IOT module as an image recording unit to form an image on a predetermined recording medium, a feed module to perform paper feeding, and a back end process unit as a data supply device to supply image data to the image recording unit.
Different from the printing system described above, a printing device provided with a printer controller, a printer engine, and data lines to connect the printer controller to the printer engine is already known (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-254763). In the printing device that is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-254763, a control line through which various control information is exchanged between the printer controller and the printer engine is separate from the data lines through which print image data is exchanged, so that a high-speed transmission of data can be realized. In the printing system, the print image data of each color is transmitted in parallel so that the high-speed transmission of data in color printing can be realized.
According to the configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519, image data for printing is transmitted from the front end processor unit to the back end processor unit and, in the back end processor unit, a printing control unit causes an image processing unit to execute an image process. However, according to the configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-287519, the image data processed by the back end processor unit is transmitted to the IOT module serving as an additional output module different from the back end processor unit so as to be outputted to a paper medium, and processes ranging from a transmission process of the image data to a printing process thereof have not been collectively controlled. For this reason, there is a concern that control of a printing operation may be complicated.